Amazing who you bump into at the Fox
Last week on a trip to Melbourne, I wandered into the SCA building on Clarendon Street that houses Fox and Triple M. To my surprise (and theirs) there to greet me at reception was the very tip of the SCA corporate iceberg, Rhys Holleran, Guy Dobson, Ben Parsons and Craig Bruce. Although I was flattered that someone had tipped them off that I was coming, I suggested that they had more important things to do than look after me, and that they should all get back to work.
They promptly took my advice and disappeared into meetings leaving me with the affable publicist Emma Mulquiney to escort me out of the building. Which she did an hour so later but not before showing me around the impressive studio complex and introducing me to the plethora of talent they have on tap there.
As luck, once again, would have it, who’s in the studio, recording their weekly Drive Show, but Hamish and Andy with Ed Sheeran. Sensing I couldn’t hang around too long, they stopped recording and came out for a chat.
They must have been very hungry because, at first, they went straight past me and headed for a huge bag of Nando’s Chicken. Their favourite, I’m told. Somebody must have tipped them off that I was on a diet, because they were kind enough not to offer me any. When Andy finally came over to see me, it was because he had his suspicions that I’d eaten his chips.
After Emma had convinced him it was Hamish, I was able to ask him which medium the boys preferred to work in, radio or television?
“Radio is just Hamish and I versus everybody. Nobody else really has to be a part of it. But with TV you’ve got to tell a hell of a lot more heads to make sure it gets to screen,” says Andy.
But that doesn’t answer the question, which do they prefer?
Emma chimes in and reports that Fox CD Dave Cameron says Radio
But Andy won’t be swayed from his neutrality saying, “Both at the moment, that’s why we’re struggling to give away one of them.
“But I will say this, the bang for your buck, the amount you put into radio for the amount of fun you get is a perfect equation for us. Whereas the filming and editing you have to do for TV is a bit more work, so to speak.
“Hamish and I just have always said if we just do stuff while we’re loving it and are always passionate about it – which is true for both at the moment – and the day that we feel that it’s waning at all, is when we’ll be the first to put up our hands to stop it. If we’re allowed to continue going for that long,” says Andy.
Peter Saxon